The World Polio Day is being marked in Bangladesh as elsewhere across the globe on Thursday.
The day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who had led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.
World Health Organisation (WHO) published 10 facts about polio in its website. The facts are:
• The disease mainly affects children under five. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilised.
• In 1988, when GPEI was formed, polio paralysed more than 350 000 people a year. Since that time, polio case numbers have decreased by more than 99%.
• There are just three countries which have never stopped transmission of polio. The three countries are Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• There are three strains of wild poliovirus, none of which can survive for long periods outside of the human body. If the virus cannot find an unvaccinated person to infect, it will die out. Type 2 wild poliovirus was eradicated in 1999.
• There are two forms of vaccine available to ward off polio - oral polio vaccine (OPV) and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). Because OPV is an oral vaccine, it can be administered by anyone, even volunteers. One dose of OPV can cost as little as 11 US cents.
• In fact, it is the largest-ever internationally-coordinated public health effort in history. Underpinning the effort is a global network of more than 20 million volunteers worldwide who have collectively immunised more than 2.5 billion children over the past 20 years.
• The Global Polio Eradication Initiative assists countries in carrying out surveillance for polio and large-scale vaccination rounds. In just one round of the national immunisation days in India there are 640 000 vaccination booths, 2.3 million vaccinators, 200 million doses of vaccine, 6.3 million ice packs, 191 million homes visited and 172 million children immunised.
• This includes those living in the most remote places on the planet. 'Days of Tranquility' are negotiated so that vaccination teams can reach children living in conflict zones. All manner of transport is used – from donkeys to motorbikes to helicopters – to reach children in remote areas or difficult terrain.
• Strategies to find and map every child can be applied to other public health initiatives. While a vaccination team is in a remote village, they can, for little additional cost, provide other health interventions while they are there.
• The WHO Western Pacific Region was declared polio free in 2000 and the WHO European Region in 2002. The world could be freed of the threat of polio - with everyone's commitment, from parent to government worker and political leader to the international community.
